Rory Cochrane Quotes

Many times good actors I have known in New York accept series. I tune in at the beginning of the new season and think 'He's really working.' But six months later, if I tune in again, the actor is on a treadmill, grinding it out as best he can, and he can't help it.

As an actor, you get hired to repeat yourself. It wears you out.

Well, of course, every actor's limited, and I am the first one to admit it, in all honesty, when I think that I've hit the wall a bit. I'm not ashamed at all, I think it's a process that you have to go through. That's how you learn.

I didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me.

For me, as an actor, one of the biggest fears on a TV show is getting stuck in something where you end up feeling like you're doing the same thing, every single year.

I definitely think it exercises an interesting muscle, auditioning for bad parts and trying to figure out how to make it real. I don't know what I'm talking about now.

The hardest part of acting is not when I'm acting, It's when I'm not.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers.

All I have to do is be me on stage. But acting, I have to be someone else, and walk how they would walk and blink how they would blink. I used to talk about it bad like, 'Aw man, that person made $10 million a movie?' But now I understand why they do. I get it now.

I auditioned for 'The Office,' and I don't know if it was a role I could do, but I liked the character. You do one take, and you're reading with a person who's just sitting in a chair and not really... you're not playing off someone, which is what I like to do. I like to play around and find the moment.

I'm not one of those people who can cry on cue. If I have to cry in an audition, I'm like, 'Okay, let me see what I can do.'

Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.

Sometimes fake laughing is hard once you've done a scene 18 times. I don't want to brag, but I have a reputation for being very, very good at that. It's funny finding what's challenging about acting as you go.

I did 'Shameless' on Showtime, and I felt like I really tried to go super-method with that, and it would just make my days really hard to get in and out of character.

You know what it is, when I'm playing a role sometimes, I just tend to stay in that role. It's easier to maintain. We just shot a pilot in a very thick American accent. I feel like the character lives in me. Of course, my family tease me about it.

When you're first reading the script and thinking about playing the part, it's slightly daunting. It's easy to question, 'Is an audience going to like me? And is that my job?'

As an actor, it's hard to approach any character with negatives.

As for the reasons behind my retirement, they mostly center around simple fatigue and a fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the graveyard of mediocre cartoons.

I learned the process of this kind of acting, how things run, how chaotic it can be, and what kind of different muscles you have to flex.

I'd love to be one of those guys who could be like, 'Yeah, it's really exhausting,' but the truth is I'm not method. I don't take roles home.

Acting is a psychological profession, and every character drains you emotionally, regardless of whether it is an intense art house movie or a light-hearted commercial series.

I don't prepare myself for any character unless it is really different.

For me, as an actor, the challenge is mostly before the film starts when you have to get into the psychology of the character.

When I have to do an emotional scene, I sometimes feel drained right before doing it.

I don't think you can be a good actor and want to please, because so much about performing and acting is surprising people.